SERMON XIII.

THE WOMEN AT THE SEPULCHRE.

MATT. XXVII. 61.

AND THERE WAS MARY MAGDALENE, AND THE OTHER MARY, SITTING OVER AGAINST THE SEPULCHRE.

JOSEPH and his companions had rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and had departed. The silence of death and the grave had succeeded to the excitement of the crucifixion; the disciples were 'scattered every one to his own,' and left their Master in the narrow house. Two women, however, could not leave the spot. Enchained there as by a spell or trance, they sat down in the garden, when others had left the place, and gave themselves the luxury of grief. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre."

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"The other Mary," here mentioned, was the mother of James, and Judas, (not Iscariot,) and Joses, and, some say, Simon Zelotes. Two, if not three, of her sons were of the twelve apostles Happy mother!

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By what methods of pious faithfulness and a godly life did so many of thy sons become such men that Jesus honored them with so great a distinction? Thou art called simply "the other Mary." But what a mother she must have been. We should expect that such a mother would love Christ ardently; and here we find her, while a great stone is rolled between her and the burying-place of her Redeemer, sitting over against it, as the dearest spot on earth in her affections.

Her companion is Mary Magdalene, a name to which, in the opinion of many judicious critics, injustice has unintentionally been done, partly through the inadvertence of readers of the Bible. Asylums for once depraved but penitent women are distinguished by her name, as though she were at the head of this class of sinners and penitents. But some insist that there is not a word in the Bible to show that she herself was a depraved woman. She is named in honorable connection with Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, who, it is thought, would not have subjected herself, being the wife of a high officer under government, to an association with such a woman as many suppose Mary Magdalene to have been. That seven devils had had possession of her, it is said, is no sufficient proof of her loose character. We are reminded that children were subject to demoniacal possession, and Mary's good standing

and influence in society would, perhaps, have been as likely as any thing to attract the notice and excite the malignity of the devil and his angels. Magdalene' is derived from the name of the town, Magdala. There is not the least reason to suppose that she was the "woman that was a sinner," who wept at Jesus' feet, and who, without any authority for it, is generally called "Mary.”

If she were immoral, still it is not necessary to suppose that she was a common, low character; we need not impute to her all that was vulgar and infamous in debauchery. Her continual association, however, in the minds of many, with persons of such a stamp, awakens in others a disposition to vindicate her even from every kindred imputation.

But while she may have been a woman of rank and influence, no one can positively assert that she was not a courtesan, a select and private transgressor, preeminent in her arts and in mischief. Yet, in the absence of a word of proof to this effect, our feelings naturally incline us to hope better things. Whether she had been a great sinner or not, she had been a great sufferer. Seven devils had made her their prey. The gates of hell had almost prevailed against her, when the mighty Conqueror, Jesus, had plucked her out of their hands. No one had more to be grateful for than she; and well might she linger at the tomb of her infinite Friend, to her the

dearest spot on earth.

Will those fiends assail her

again, now that Jesus is dead? Has hell triumphed? What a loss to her, apparently, is the death of Christ. To whom shall she go but unto him?

Approaching night at last compelled these women to leave the tomb. But when they left the sepulchre, it was on an errand of love to Christ. "And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments." Joseph and Nicodemus had wrapped the body in a hundred pounds of dry spices, such as myrrh and aloes, by which the bleeding wounds were stanched, and the body would seem to be kept for some time in a state of preservation. The women had no intention, of course, of embalming the body, properly speaking; but they meant to anoint the face, and hands, and feet, with fragrant oils and balm, with just the feeling with which we strew flowers around the dead. To embalm the body was not the work of women. Their purpose was the beautiful suggestion of love and honor, to bestow some expression of care and affection upon the precious remains.

"And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments" that same night; and the very next morning, by daybreak, we may expect that they will visit the tomb, and execute their purpose. But no; they waited one whole day. Why is this? Is their love so suddenly grown cold? They rested the

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Sabbath day, according to the commandment."

What pious reverence for the day of God do we find here. Even the desire to bestow honor upon Jesus does not lead these women to visit his tomb on the Sabbath. Christ was the Lord of the Sabbath. Will not this give them permission to leave their place of worship? They will think of nothing but the sepulchre, if they go to public worship; and may they not properly go where their hearts are? Can they serve God better than by showing respect to the body of his Son? Thus many would reason for them, and excuse them. We respect, we reverence them, for this powerful example of regard for the day of holy rest. It is a gentle and kind admonition to those who visit cemeteries on the Sabbath, to weep at the graves of kindred. Jesus was left alone in his tomb on the Sabbath; a Sabbath which then commemorated only the creation of the world. We should not prize and honor our Christian Sabbath, with its more precious associations, less. Our regard for holy time should restrain us from doing that which the piety of these Jewesses would not do even for the Saviour of the world.

And was it any real deprivation and loss to those women that they could not visit the sepulchre on the Sabbath? In their secret places, and in the house of God, separated from the object that would move their sensibilities to no good purpose, they spent a far more profitable day than by sitting over against

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